Oncology Nurses Day 2024 is on Sunday, September 8, 2024: Pediatric oncology nurse?
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As a Registered Professional Nurse and educator, I suggest you get through nursing school before deciding whether to specialize. Nursing school is quite challenging and you'll need to do well in all subject areas. If, when you graduate, you still feel oncology is what you're interested in, well and good. Nursing children with cancer is intensely demanding both physically and emotionally. You'll be watching some children get well, but you'll also watch a lot of them die, and death is ugly, especially in a very young child.
Do you enjoy being an Oncology nurse?
Interesting question. Many nurses in other fields would wonder how in the world could anyone enjoy that area. But many of us do, at least those of us who chose to stick around by choice. Nurses are often placed on Cancer units because they also handle Medical & Surgical patients too when beds are available so it's an outstanding place to learn as a new graduate. That's how I started. Coming in with an ADN my bedside skills were ahead of those BSNs that started with me, but we all got plenty of experience on that unit. Cancer comes in all forms and patients need every skill a nurse has from starting IV lines to drawing blood from central lines. I quickly got past my fear of the words CODE BLUE and learned how to jump right in there and pop syringes just as fast as the ICU nurses. I became an expert at various forms of suctioning because I couldn't stand to hear my patients gurgling and I have and still show nurses ways they didn't know to get foley catheters and NG tubes to drain properly. (Even in other countries) I learned to take time feeding the elderly patient that the nursing assistants might not have time to sit with, and I occassionally pulled rank and organize impromptu ice cream parties in the hall for several wheel chair patients just to get them out of their rooms just "because I said so." When necessary I sometimes had to approach the families about sensitive issues like No Code orders, Organ Donation and that the time has come to call any other family members if they want to be present. I didn't take pleasure in those things but I knew that they are important. Even tho I tried not to get attached to the patients and the families, it couldn't be helped. Cancer patients are in and out of the hospital alot and they spend a good amount of time in the hospital some times so you do get to know them by name. I joked around with them and their families to try to break the tension, and I did whatever I could for them to make their stay a little less terrible, even if it was just bringing them a coke, ice cream, extra blanket or a cot. I made sure that the doctor knew what was going on as soon as they hit the floor, and I woke many of them up in the middle of the night. Nurses are with patients 24/7. Doctors float in and out.
I also remember many heartbreaking times. Several of us had to get together one night with an on-call doc because one of our 'regular' patients was accidentally Coded and taken to ICU and put on the vent. His regular doc didn't write the No Code order on admission and our hands were tied. It was terrible. We were all in tears as they took him off on that stretcher because we knew he didn't want that and his family was very upset but the oncall doc wouldn't write the order. Well long story short, alot of legal wrangling later the next day, here comes our patient back to the floor with his family in tow. He pasted the nurses station and just smiled at us and said "I'm home now and I'm staying." He died later that shift but it was exactly what he wanted. All of his family was there with him which is something that he couldn't have in the ICU unit.
That was just one of many I remember. Those patients changed my life and the way I live mine. I honestly saw many miracles, at least that is the only way I can describe them. Things that medical science can't explain. I don't think there are many other units like that in a hospital.
Geez....AKA there sure was paying attention!! ;-p
Do you enjoy being a Pediatric Oncology Nurse?
I am not a pediatric oncology nurse, but I do work in pediatric oncology with some wonderful nurses who love their job.
There are certainly ups and downs, and it does take an emotional toll, but pediatric oncology can be a happy place to be, too. While our patients are getting chemo, they are playing the Wii or singing along to Yo Gabba Gabba on TV or cooking in the play kitchen or painting the clinic windows. We celebrate the little things (a lost tooth, potty training) and the big things (off treatment!)
There are days, of course, when our patients aren't feeling well, are crabby, don't want to be there, aren't into cooperating. It happens. The nurses just keep going. There are days when we have more tears because of tantrums than because of pain or not feeling well.
There are sad times. Not every child gets better. MOST children with cancer get better. It's really hard when you know a child is not going to get better. The nurses become very cose with the families, and when a child dies, it's horrific. We have constant reminders of WHY we do this, though, when a child does get better, or a child gives a random hug, or a parent says how much easier the nurse/doctor/whoever has made the process.
Our nurses have all been with our clinic for many years, and really love their job. It's certainly not for everyone; there are many challenges, but aso many rewards.
